It seems fitting to use a Google Search Story as this entire journey is the product of searching… searching for a career, a home and the right opportunity.

Quick round-up of events leading up to this award: As the executive producer of Phoenix14News, I worked with our news director Drew Smith to apply for the College Television Awards in December and upload our newscast in January. In early February, I was notified we had been selected as finalists and needed to overnight more DVDs for the final judging. Being named a finalist was enough of an honor, so when I got a phone call two weeks later announcing we had won first, second or third, I just about fell out of my chair (I was producing live SGA coverage at the time).

With that, we made plans to send myself, Drew Smith, Nick Ochsner and our anchors Mallory Lane and Jasmine Spencer, along with our adviser Rich Landesberg, to Los Angeles for the ceremony the first week in April. It was a black tie affair and exceeded all expectations I had. We were already feeling like winners, especially when we found out the two other finalists: WEIU and Arizona State’s Cronkite Newswatch. Then the announcement… You’ll need to watch this highlight video to understand the excitement surrounding the evening!

http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:uma:video:mtv.com:649672

It was a star-studded evening with Gena Davis, Elijah Wood and Darren Criss to name a few. In addition to the student awards, the Academy Foundation also honored the creators of Glee for their cutting-edge casting of marginalized groups. KABC anchor David Ono presented the award to our team for best newscast. After the win, we had the opportunity to take this picture with him on the Red Carpet.

Perhaps most exciting was returning to Elon and presenting the award to the entire staff at Phoenix14News. It was an honor to be recognized by the Academy Foundation and it energized our entire staff to know we had been selected from an incredibly talented pool of student newscasts. Our award finally found its way home as our staff presented the award to the School of Communications Dean Paul Parsons before we went live Monday. Here is an image from the presentation:

As I prepare for graduation next week, it is only appropriate to look back and be proud of what our team has accomplished during these four years. This is certainly the culminating event of my college experience and as a soon-to-be alumni, I cannot wait to see where the program will go from here. I am honored to be a member of this incredible team!

Producer/Reporter: Kirsten Bennett
Photographer/Editor: Tim Mollen

About the assignment: Tim Mollen and I were given a small semi-circle in downtown Burlington and told to find a story. We channeled the CBS News, “Everybody Has a Story” segment stopped at a random small business within our area and talking the owner, Joe Robertson, into an on-camera interview.

Watching 60 Minutes, you recognize how much research goes into each of the pieces, but you don’t realize how much planning also goes into not only the logistics of interviews and shooting, but also into the storyline itself. During my first week, I had the opportunity to sit in on multiple editorial meetings for two stories. The discussions weren’t centered around the logistics of the story per say, but were much more sophisticated in determining all questions concerning the issue and how to get an answer out of a potentially difficult interview. The producers spend many months to upwards of a year on each of these stories developing the necessary elements and ensuring all the facts and information have been sought out. The editorial meetings are a way of brainstorming the troubled issues of the story and the issues the viewer will expect to hear the answer to.

I also had the opportunity to sit down with Mr. Radutzky and discuss the role of a producer and how prepared and organized one must be. The producers are responsible for coming up with their own story ideas most of the time and are responsible for developing them into what Radutzky called a “gem.” 60 Minutes doesn’t generally do overview pieces, but rather takes a current issue and finds the special angle not covered by daily news programs and really delves deeply into it. This requires that the producer know the story so well as to find that “gem” that is interesting enough to merit a long piece and also that will captive the audience with important information and a compelling character. The producer also writes out interview questions and works with the correspondent to make the interview not only informative, but compelling. In the coming weeks, I look forward to learning more about turning multiple lengthy interviews into a short, yet detailed story and watching as the producers begin to write out their pieces and craft the story.

Week 2 (January 10-14, 2011):

Last week I was introduced to the interview process after watching a video of an interview conducted before I started my internship. This week I had the opportunity to help prepare for and witness an interview for two investigative stories I have been a part of. While I can’t into the specifics, I can speak in generalities about the work that prepare for and tape an interview. Unlike many local news interviews, 60 Minutes interviews require a large crew for the two-camera interviews. In addition to the two cameramen, there were multiple lighting directors to ensure the correspondent and interview subject were both properly lit, and there were also two sound technicians that listened to the feed coming from each microphone to ensure the audio quality was perfect with no static or other feedback issues. This reflects the careful attention to detail 60 Minutes take for all they do.

As an aspiring producer, I was particularly interested in how the producer followed the interview and shared their input. While the correspondent was great about asking the same question multiple times in many ways, the producer was the final word in the conclusion of the interview. The story producer kept close notes of the points the interviewee made well and that may need to be asked again. The producer followed along with the written questions to ensure every point was brought up and fully covered. The producer also listened to the interview to suggest potential follow-up questions not already written.

After watching an interview, I had the opportunity to take part in a meeting of three producers for another story as they prepared final questions for a series of interviews they were traveling to do this weekend. Each producer wrote suggested questions and the three producers met to finalize the questions and ensure the wording was perfect. 60 Minutes is an interview-based show, so the correspondent’s question is just as important as the answer. It must be telling and guide the interview subject to the most complete and compelling answer. In addition to questions, the producers also wrote statements in some cases that would bring about an emotional response from a given subject. For 60 Minutes the writing process begins before the writing of the story itself, the focus on concise and informative writing is just as critical in the question writing process.

This week I also had the opportunity to meet with correspondent, Lara Logan. Logan is the chief international correspondent and is best known for her coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Logan shared her advice with me as well as shared stories from her travels. Being one of the few women in hostile environments, I asked Logan if she ever felt scared while abroad. Logan grew up in South Africa during the period of apartheid and said violence and war was a part of her life from the beginning. Because of this, the experiences of war aren’t quite as foreign or hard to grasp for Logan. Logan and I also had the opportunity to discuss her career advice. She said relationships are the most important thing and suggested that I, “find out who you are, what you want and form genuine relationships that will help get you there.”

Week 3 (January 18-21, 2011):

This week, my focus on question writing paid off. While the producers I was working with were finishing their shoot that weekend in San Francisco, we had the opportunity to interview another character in New York. My supervisor was also out of town, which left me and another associate producer to coordinate the shoot, meet with the subject and write the interview questions for the correspondent. While the associate producer focused on coordinating the crews, I focused my energy on researching the subjects work and preparing information to meet with him. While I had learned about the question writing process, I had the opportunity to meet with the interviewee beforehand.

As I had learned earlier in the month, 60 Minutes interview questions are not a way to get information as much as an opportunity to get the information from previous discussions on-camera and in the most compelling way. The day before the interview, I met with the subject to learn more about his focus and area of knowledge. During this meeting, I took careful notes to find the most interesting aspects of his research to have the correspondent discuss with him during the interview. After the meeting, I looked at the most compelling aspects of our conversation and wrote ten interview questions to guide the discussion. This doesn’t just include writing questions, as the answer is also written under the questions to ensure that all aspects of the question are answered. This lets the correspondent know if a follow-up question is needed to get the full answer. It was incredibly exciting to first get the praise of my supervisor, who said the questions needed no editing and then sit in on the interview with Katie Couric as she read the questions I had written for her.

As this was my last full week at my internship, I also took the time to meet with the show’s executive producer, Jeff Fager and correspondent Scott Pelley. As I was asking Fager about entry level positions with CBS News, he not only told me about his career path, but also shared the advice that the skills and work ethic gained in local daily news is so critical for work at the network. He also talked about the importance of being proud of what we do as journalists and said if one has that sense of pride, their work will reflect their best efforts and will also bring the trust of the viewers.

Pelley reiterated the importance of relationships. He said news directors get so many resumes and reels that sometimes a personal connection at the station is the only way to ensure your reel will be pulled to the top of the pile. He had a strategy for the job search as well. He suggested that I find three to five stations I am really interested in, based on the location, style of the newscast and their overall news philosophy. I should then contact the executive producer or news director at the station to let them know of my interest. After making the initial relationship, following up my phone, email and visit are necessary to maintain them. Even if no position is available when I first make the connection, one could open up shortly and they would already know to turn to me with such an opportunity. Leaving this internship, I will now look to identify these stations and start making the connections early to ensure my name isn’t lost in the pile of resumes and reels.

We were at the college by 7:15am to find out spot on the riser and set up our equipment. We were asked to leave at 8:00am and couldn’t return until after the equipment sweep was finished at about 10:30am. This was when we got check-in and received our press credentials, sadly we didn’t get to keep them.

The President spoke for more than 30 minutes about the economy to a group of about 150 students, staff and community leaders, including Governor Bev Perdue and Senators Kay Hagan and Richard Burr. He focused his speech on the economy and the important role of technology in moving the U.S. forward. He also discussed the reasons behind the extension of Bush tax cuts and his plans to help small businesses develop.

Here is the completed story Drew and I produced for the 6pm show that day:

Here is the rest of this show:

If you would like to watch the pre-election special, which aired two days before the election, go to the Phoenix14News website.

Here is the A-block of this show:

Here is the rest of the show, including the B-block, C-block and D-block: